Three of the game's V.I.P. Bots are not based on video game characters, and are instead references to non-gaming products made by Sony. The Bots in question are "Forgotten Mascot" (based on Polygon Man, the intended mascot of the original PlayStation), "Pup Pal" and "Pup Pal +" (respectively based on the ERS-110 and ERS-1000 from AIBO, a series of robot dogs designed and manufactured by Sony).
When wearing the NieR: Automata Nano Suits added in the crossover DLC with the game, if you attempt to move the camera to look up Eve's dress, a special animation will play where she notices and violently kicks the camera back away. This animation can only be triggered while wearing the NieR: Automata suits and none of the default suits in the base game, and acts as a reference to secret achievements in NieR RepliCant and NieR: Automata for trying to look under Kainé and 2B's clothes respectively.
On the password screen, if you enter the password Pingu, Snowman, Dad, and Mom, the player will be brought to a screen where Pingu is seen dancing on a stage to the 1984 song "Woodpeckers from Space" by Eurodisco duo VideoKids. This song was previously featured in the original release of "Pingu Looks After the Egg", the second episode of the "Pingu" TV series in 1990.
Upon reaching Nuisance level with Lustat, one of her dialogue lines will have her claim that the player isn't "the cutest vampire slayer I've ever met", stating "There was this one gal in the 90s that... Well, best not to kiss and tell." This is a reference to the 1997 television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".
There is an apartment complex in front of an alleyway located a short distance from Toro's hotel room. If you visit this location in the evening, you can see in one of the second floor windows (the cursor pointing at it in the attached screenshot) what appears to be a giant ghostly face covering the whole window. This phenomenon seems to be addressed in a dialogue the player can have with Toro either directly in front of the building or heading up the stairs in the alleyway leading to it:
Toro: "Hey hey... what's that over there?"
Second dialogue option: "What thing?"
Toro: "I can't see it very well from here... Ah... I really wanna know what it is, let's check it out!"
The discovery of this secret shortly after the game's release caused speculation among Japanese players as to if it was an intentional Easter egg, or a case of poor lighting inside the building, but the answer remains unknown.
The designs of the Tulpar crew are all loosely based on characters from popular horror media. Two examples that the developers themselves confirmed in a diary post are Daisuke and Anya, who are respectively based on Ryosuke Kawashima from the 2001 Japanese horror film Pulse and Wendy Torrance (as portrayed by Shelley Duvall) in the 1980 film adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining.
One of the oldest and most well-known rumors in the game was that the Iceberg to the northeast of Club Penguin Island could be tipped over if enough penguins stood on one side of it, or if enough penguins used the Jackhammer 3000 on the Iceberg by wearing the Hard Hat. However, this rumor was false and was never actually implemented into the game for most of its run.
From January 31 until the date of the game's shutdown on March 30, 2017, the Waddle on Party was held. As part of the celebrations, the developers decided to actually program and code the Iceberg so it could tip over. This was hinted at by one of the game's community managers, who revealed in the comments section of a blogpost detailing the Waddle on Party that "penguins could discover a special secret". The Iceberg could be tipped if at least 5 players in the room were wearing the color Blue, walking a Blue Puffle or any of its variants, and dancing while wearing a Hard Hat. If only 2 to 4 penguins fulfilled this criteria, the Iceberg would just shake. When enough penguins manage to tip it, the Iceberg would completely flip over, revealing a large dance floor, a bin of free Iceberg Tipper hats, a buoy numbered 11 frozen in the ice, and a plaque surrounded by many carvings and an inscription on it that read:
"Together, we can build an island, create a community, change the world... and even tip an iceberg. Waddle on."
The "You There" and "Point Up" gestures normally cause human NPCs to look panicked or look up to the sky respectively, but when they are each done near an animal, it will cause the animal to turn and look in the direction that Kat is pointing.
The character Marcas Brickley is played by Sean McLoughlin, better known as the YouTuber Jacksepticeye. During his playthrough of Chapter 2 where the videotape featuring Marcas appears, McLoughlin revealed various details about getting into the character and recording his part. The video was recorded months before the chapter's release and required him to record in a place that resembled an office, something that took him "ages" to find and required audio treatment due to the room not having sound padding. To match the color scheme of Playtime Co., McLoughlin was required to wear a yellow shirt, with the lanyard the character wears being made from scratch by combining a lanyard, a piece of paper printed with a fake barcode, his character's name, and the Playtime Co. logo, which he found on Poppy Playtime's merchandise website. Additionally, at the end of the video tape, Leith Pierre asks Marcas to bring him a cup of coffee; while unconfirmed, this may be a reference to McLoughlin's coffee company, Top of the Mornin' Coffee. During his playthrough of Chapter 3, McLoughlin revealed that he had been asked to reprise his role, but was unable to due to scheduling conflicts.
The Japanese version of the game features a unique location west of Mt. Glom, a small riverside woodland simply called "?". This area is only accessible if the player patches their memory card using a CD distributed with volume 147 of Dengeki PlayStation. The primary feature of ? is Dengeki-ya, a Special Store containing a lottery, a shop, and a free Rusted Sword. Despite tying in with a magazine published exclusively in Japan, the files for ? are still present in the US release's data.
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When you first encounter The Mohole boss fight, Super Joe will normally tell Spencer:
Joe: "Spencer, there's no way out. You'll just have to fight it." Spencer: "My pleasure."
However, there is a chance that Super Joe will instead say something bluer:
Joe: "Spencer, there's no way out. You'll just have to fuck it." Spencer: "Umm..."
The closed captions do not change to accommodate for the dialogue change, making it a surprise. It's not known if there are any pre-requisites to triggering this secret, or if there is just a randomized chance of hearing it, but it can happen if you die to the boss and attempt it again at least once.
On the second floor of Graniny Gorki, there is a library/desk room on the west side of the wall that features three notable paintings and a magazine. The paintings are Spoiler:"Salvation." and "Promise." which depict God, and "St. Alessa Gillespie: Mother of God, Daughter of God.", and are taken from the Church from Silent Hill 3. There is a fourth painting in the room depicting the head of a woman, but it's not known where it originates from. The magazine can be found on the desk towards the back of the room, and is a copy of the May 2004 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly promoting the game on the cover.
During the game's fifth mission, if you complete the Sniper's Last Stand level on Hard mode, the player will be brought to the second part of the level to play a hide-and-seek minigame. You are given 60 seconds to find a safe hiding spot, and then the "Bazooka-Med", a medic carrying a bazooka, will start to hunt you down until he finds you and shoots you with it. There is no reward for winning this minigame.
In the "Blood and Wine" expansion, one of the fist-fighters Geralt must defeat in Beauclair is a man named Mancomb who can be found near the Nilfgaardian Embassy marker in the south. Mancomb is described as an experienced fighter, but instead of fighting in hand-to-hand combat, Geralt must instead fight Mancomb by verbally roasting him. This entire sequence is a reference to the Monkey Island series, with Mancomb's appearance being modeled after series protagonist Guybrush Threepwood, the name "Mancomb" already belonging to the Monkey Island character Mancomb Seepgood, and the fight itself referencing the recurring Insult Sword Fights throughout the series.
In 2023, a previously undiscovered Easter egg was found in the secret level "The Abyssmal". However, while it is possible to activate this secret legitimately, the steps to do so are uncertain as to how many are really needed to activate it. In order to make it appear, Gex needs to whack all 6 pearls, whack all 7 mines in a specific order, whack every fish, whack the turret without activating it, and whack the target inside of the sunken ship. Another possible step is going inside of the ship's funnel, but it's still unknown if this is supposed to be an invisible trigger for something or if it's unnecessary for triggering the Easter egg. When all of these steps are completed, a spinning cube with pictures of three family members of the developers will appear on top of the Deep Sea Explorer. Destroying the cube will award you with a Star Token for the Vault.
At the small bridge past your farmland when heading into Harmonica Town, if you use the Old Camera to peek into the tunnel next to the bridge on a rainy day, the Kappa can be seen silently waiting far away in the water. This is the only game in the series where you cannot interact with him.
The description for the V.I.P. Bot "Watermelon Buster" (based on Raiden from the Metal Gear series and specifically his appearance in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance) simply reads "Nanomachines, son!" This is a reference to the final boss fight in that game, where Spoiler:after Raiden asks him why he won't die, Senator Armstrong responds "Nanomachines, son!", with the scene and line becoming an internet meme.
In Iron Jungle, if Shadow is accompanied by the Egg Monitor while fighting one of the Big Foot Type A enemies, Dr. Eggman will laugh at it and say "That's just like the Big Foot from Prison Island!" This is a callback to the first boss fights in the Hero and Dark Stories from Sonic Adventure 2, although F-6t Big Foot was fought in Central City, while its more powerful variant B-3x Hot Shot was the one fought on Prison Island.
After finishing the Chaos Island acts, one of the things Big the Cat will say to Shadow when talking to him in the overworld is that he had been on the ARK and that Shadow passed by him a few times while searching for Froggy, referencing the many cameos that he had in Sonic Adventure 2.
In Astro Bot, the V.I.P. Bot "Brave Biker" is based on Deacon St. John, the main protagonist of Days Gone. While the game's developer Bend Studio praised the cameo, the game's writer and co-director John Garvin did not. He claimed that the character had been "reduced to promoting other games" and sarcastically remarked about how Bend Studio was "protecting its legacy", starting a back-and-forth argument with fans on Twitter. This negative response stemmed from complaints and tensions with Bend Studio and its workplace culture that Garvin tweeted about in a rant in 2022, two years after departing from the studio. He blamed Days Gone's mixed-to-average reception on bugs, critics who didn't even play the game, and "woke reviewers" who did, prompting Bend Studio to release a statement distancing themselves from him and his views.
On the password screen, if you enter the password Pingu, Snowman, Dad, and Mom, the player will be brought to a screen where Pingu is seen dancing on a stage to the 1984 song "Woodpeckers from Space" by Eurodisco duo VideoKids. This song was previously featured in the original release of "Pingu Looks After the Egg", the second episode of the "Pingu" TV series in 1990.
There is an apartment complex in front of an alleyway located a short distance from Toro's hotel room. If you visit this location in the evening, you can see in one of the second floor windows (the cursor pointing at it in the attached screenshot) what appears to be a giant ghostly face covering the whole window. This phenomenon seems to be addressed in a dialogue the player can have with Toro either directly in front of the building or heading up the stairs in the alleyway leading to it:
One of the oldest and most well-known rumors in the game was that the Iceberg to the northeast of Club Penguin Island could be tipped over if enough penguins stood on one side of it, or if enough penguins used the Jackhammer 3000 on the Iceberg by wearing the Hard Hat. However, this rumor was false and was never actually implemented into the game for most of its run.
The character Marcas Brickley is played by Sean McLoughlin, better known as the YouTuber Jacksepticeye. During his playthrough of Chapter 2 where the videotape featuring Marcas appears, McLoughlin revealed various details about getting into the character and recording his part. The video was recorded months before the chapter's release and required him to record in a place that resembled an office, something that took him "ages" to find and required audio treatment due to the room not having sound padding. To match the color scheme of Playtime Co., McLoughlin was required to wear a yellow shirt, with the lanyard the character wears being made from scratch by combining a lanyard, a piece of paper printed with a fake barcode, his character's name, and the Playtime Co. logo, which he found on Poppy Playtime's merchandise website. Additionally, at the end of the video tape, Leith Pierre asks Marcas to bring him a cup of coffee; while unconfirmed, this may be a reference to McLoughlin's coffee company, Top of the Mornin' Coffee. During his playthrough of Chapter 3, McLoughlin revealed that he had been asked to reprise his role, but was unable to due to scheduling conflicts.
The Japanese version of the game features a unique location west of Mt. Glom, a small riverside woodland simply called "?". This area is only accessible if the player patches their memory card using a CD distributed with volume 147 of Dengeki PlayStation. The primary feature of ? is Dengeki-ya, a Special Store containing a lottery, a shop, and a free Rusted Sword. Despite tying in with a magazine published exclusively in Japan, the files for ? are still present in the US release's data.
On the second floor of Graniny Gorki, there is a library/desk room on the west side of the wall that features three notable paintings and a magazine. The paintings are Spoiler:"Salvation." and "Promise." which depict God, and "St. Alessa Gillespie: Mother of God, Daughter of God.", and are taken from the Church from Silent Hill 3. There is a fourth painting in the room depicting the head of a woman, but it's not known where it originates from. The magazine can be found on the desk towards the back of the room, and is a copy of the May 2004 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly promoting the game on the cover.
In the "Blood and Wine" expansion, one of the fist-fighters Geralt must defeat in Beauclair is a man named Mancomb who can be found near the Nilfgaardian Embassy marker in the south. Mancomb is described as an experienced fighter, but instead of fighting in hand-to-hand combat, Geralt must instead fight Mancomb by verbally roasting him. This entire sequence is a reference to the Monkey Island series, with Mancomb's appearance being modeled after series protagonist Guybrush Threepwood, the name "Mancomb" already belonging to the Monkey Island character Mancomb Seepgood, and the fight itself referencing the recurring Insult Sword Fights throughout the series.
In 2023, a previously undiscovered Easter egg was found in the secret level "The Abyssmal". However, while it is possible to activate this secret legitimately, the steps to do so are uncertain as to how many are really needed to activate it. In order to make it appear, Gex needs to whack all 6 pearls, whack all 7 mines in a specific order, whack every fish, whack the turret without activating it, and whack the target inside of the sunken ship. Another possible step is going inside of the ship's funnel, but it's still unknown if this is supposed to be an invisible trigger for something or if it's unnecessary for triggering the Easter egg. When all of these steps are completed, a spinning cube with pictures of three family members of the developers will appear on top of the Deep Sea Explorer. Destroying the cube will award you with a Star Token for the Vault.
At the small bridge past your farmland when heading into Harmonica Town, if you use the Old Camera to peek into the tunnel next to the bridge on a rainy day, the Kappa can be seen silently waiting far away in the water. This is the only game in the series where you cannot interact with him.
In Iron Jungle, if Shadow is accompanied by the Egg Monitor while fighting one of the Big Foot Type A enemies, Dr. Eggman will laugh at it and say "That's just like the Big Foot from Prison Island!" This is a callback to the first boss fights in the Hero and Dark Stories from Sonic Adventure 2, although F-6t Big Foot was fought in Central City, while its more powerful variant B-3x Hot Shot was the one fought on Prison Island.
